I Fall, I Rise
by Singkatsu
Summary: What was Luke thinking during that final descent? Drabble.


_A/N_ : This is a response to a challenge by Kuneko, though of a different sort than I'm used to. Abyss' ending is so uncertain, and so heart-wrenching, that I couldn't help but give it my own contemplative spin.

The fall was endless.

You weren't sure whether you were floating or falling anymore, or how long it had been since you started. It felt like you could barely breathe. The level of fonons floating around is insane, and you can barely tell where you end and the planet's core begins. Were you fading into it and becoming one with the other seven fonons? You weren't sure.

You just knew that it was the most powerful you had ever felt. It was probably the most powerful a replica like you could hope to feel. But it also made you feel helpless.

Back then, when you were twelve – or five, you guess - Guy had taught you to climb trees, hoping that you'd be able to mess with Ramdas. It was the stupid stuff that kids do, but it had been better than the typical 24/7 boredom. You'd stayed like that for hours, joking around and driving the housekeeper crazy while he tried to find you. The fun had come to an end when you had lost your grip. The fall between the upper branches and the ground had felt just as endless…

If you landed now, would the crash feel the same?

Asch was falling a few feet off, his body noticeably limp and his skin pale. Breathless, you wished you could yell. Wished you could reach him. Even when you were at your most powerful, you felt powerless. Tears filled your eyes, and your hands were clenching. You hadn't even wanted to leave him behind in that room. Again, you were the one who wasn't supposed to exist. Asch was the one that Baticul needed, who had a place in the world after all of this was over. Him dying…it just wasn't fair.

Now, we were falling, faster and faster.

The light was everywhere, pressing into you from all sides. There was no sound, and no pain. Even if you were leaving everything behind, feeling these fonons floating around you was peaceful.

But then why did the world feel like it was fading? As if your body was dispersing into the planet itself?

Was this what it felt like when Ion died? Did replicas die feeling like they were fading away?

 _Hmph, it figures you'd think of something that stupid, replica._

Asch was still floating there, lifeless. His voice shouldn't be able to reach you anymore.

 _Consider this to be the last 'nice' thing I ever do for you._

But…why? You thought.

 _Do you want to die?_

Burn out and become ash. Maybe I can accept it…but I don't really want it.

 _Then accept it. You're Luke. Now, stop being ungrateful and go back! Get back to them!_

You were fading, but you were also returning. You were becoming something more.

Falling through the abyss, being suspended in this charged atmosphere, was the most relaxing thing you'd ever felt. Tutors had taught you that babies came from wombs, suspended in a weird liquid that kept them alive. Maybe this feeling, this weightlessness, was your personal version of that.

Tired of seeing the endlessness, you close your eyes. The words of the others are reaching you across the divide. They tell you to come back (Tear begged) and they were waiting.

First through seven fonons begin to reshape your body; you could tell that everything felt different. Memories, Asch's memories, were filling your mind, as what remained of him joined you. The sight of a young Natalia made you smile, as she skipped through the square outside your home. You were being trained by Master Van in Daath, being beaten around as Legretta and Largo watched from across the room. The Dark Wings were talking to you, repeating your name, _Asch_ , to make you come to.

You were you, but you also had parts of him. He would live on in you.

Without warning, without you wanting it, the muted silence of the abyss was replaced by the roar of the ocean.

When you opened your eyes again, you were whole. The night's sky was above you, and the breeze blew your long hair around. You could smell Selenia flowers.

You were back and you were whole. You were you and you were more, somehow.

You were born again.


End file.
